Despite confusion, Carlos Santana is NOT Muammar Gaddafi; still very much alive

Nope, that’s not an Onion headline, PopWatchers. In response to yesterday’s news regarding the death of Muammar Gaddafi, it seems some folks took one look at the slain Libyan dictator, and rather than, say, Googling him (or they did and gave up halfway through trying to figure out how to spell his name), thought they were seeing legendary guitarist Carlos Santana get captured and killed by rebel forces. (C’mon guys, “Smooth” isn’t that annoying.)

As the Washington Post noted, Santana joined the long lineage of celebrity death hoaxes, when tweeters began to post condolences for the Grammy-winner (“R.I.P. Carlos Santana”) using pictures of the actual deceased person, Gaddafi. Of course, some people could have just been kidding — Denis Leary posted, “#GhadafiLastWords ‘You got the wrong man – I’m telling you – I’m Carlos Santana!'” and Tim and Eric‘s Tim Heidecker wrote from his Twitter page, “Can’t believe the real ‘guitar hero’ Carlos Santana is dead http://pic.twitter.com/8kXeSJNV”–but others could have legitimately confused the two.

Still, Santana hasn’t been the only celebrity mistaken for Gaddafi in the past. As Jon Stewart pointed out on The Daily Show back in February, Gaddafi also sort of resembled, “a wax figure of Danny Trejo that was left out in the sun,” “if Jim Henson made a Muppet out of Prince,” or “Lionel Richie after a quick peek the Ark of the Covenant.”

So, PopWatchers, are you not surprised that people confused Carlos Santana with Muammar Gaddafi or do you not see the resemblance at all? Share in the comments section below.